I love my Keebio Iris; I've built three at this point, for my two work machines and my home office. 60%, split, columnar, programmable with QMK. Since they're completely split, with only a cable between them, I can place them in whatever angle is perfectly comfortable for me, and I have room for my track ball between them for super easy access [0]
The main power in these custom boards is in the firmware, allowing you limitless customization. If you're the sort of person to place Escape or Control on your CapsLock button via OS tools, this takes that to another level. I never have to take my hands out of home position.
Some of my layout details [1]:
* When spacebar is held down, it activates a navigation layer instead of typing space. In this layer, I have HJKL arrow keys, along with page up/down, home/end, my numrow becomes function keys, and Tab/CapsLock cycle through browser tabs.
* The CapsLock button is Escape when tapped, Control when held down.
* The damn. key [0] is Control-Alt-Delete when tapped once, Control-Shift-Escape when tapped twice.
* The fn key, when held, turns the right half of the board into a traditional numpad descending from the 789 keys in the numrow.
* The raise key, when held, gives access to any special characters not already in the main layout (-_{}[]+=|\)
I also have a separate BDN9 macropad [0] with rotary encoders for volume/zoom, and keys mapped to the debugging navigation keys for software debugging. Also has a screenshot macro (print screen, win+R, type "mspaint", enter, wait 750ms, control+P). It has a key that will open notepad on a single-tap (win+R, type "notepad", enter) or type out a long email header I use frequently when double-tapped.
There is certainly an aesthetic component (I love the look and feel of my boards and my keycaps), and the build was a big draw (soldering everything together, programming the layout), but the benefit of having a totally custom setup for my specific needs is fantastic.
The main power in these custom boards is in the firmware, allowing you limitless customization. If you're the sort of person to place Escape or Control on your CapsLock button via OS tools, this takes that to another level. I never have to take my hands out of home position.
Some of my layout details [1]:
* When spacebar is held down, it activates a navigation layer instead of typing space. In this layer, I have HJKL arrow keys, along with page up/down, home/end, my numrow becomes function keys, and Tab/CapsLock cycle through browser tabs.
* The CapsLock button is Escape when tapped, Control when held down.
* The damn. key [0] is Control-Alt-Delete when tapped once, Control-Shift-Escape when tapped twice.
* The fn key, when held, turns the right half of the board into a traditional numpad descending from the 789 keys in the numrow.
* The raise key, when held, gives access to any special characters not already in the main layout (-_{}[]+=|\)
I also have a separate BDN9 macropad [0] with rotary encoders for volume/zoom, and keys mapped to the debugging navigation keys for software debugging. Also has a screenshot macro (print screen, win+R, type "mspaint", enter, wait 750ms, control+P). It has a key that will open notepad on a single-tap (win+R, type "notepad", enter) or type out a long email header I use frequently when double-tapped.
There is certainly an aesthetic component (I love the look and feel of my boards and my keycaps), and the build was a big draw (soldering everything together, programming the layout), but the benefit of having a totally custom setup for my specific needs is fantastic.
[0] My primary work setup: https://imgur.com/a/uvuDeE3
[1] My QMK layout file: https://github.com/imnotpete/qmk_firmware/blob/master/keyboa...